Training XII

It's not often you get to train with movie stars but Jean-Claude Van Damme, the "Muscles from Brussels", turned out tonight with Chuckle Elder and they brought a friend, the wise cracking Mr H.

J-C took a fitness test a few weeks ago and it didn't go to plan so he has trained with us tonight to blow away a few cobwebs, as has Mr H. Both are due to take their tests in the next couple of weeks so 4-5 sessions with CE, Fat Lad, Zico, Titfer and me are supposed to be ideal preparation. Tonight's was a High Intensity runaround consisting of 3 minutes running, 1 minute rest repeated 7 times. Even though I was lapped twice by everyone but Titfer (who never passed me) I kept running all through the first 6 sets. On the 7th set I was trying to re-create my last mad dash (see Training XI) for the last 2 minutes of the run but I only managed one touchline. Fat Lad looked genuinely upset (he says he wasn't and he was more upset that I had posted that!) when I passed them all resting after completing their runs as I told him I hasn't finished yet! I had taken a slightly longer rest after two runs because I was re-setting the max heart rate on my heart monitor to 175 and that's why I hadn't stopped running at the same time as them.

At 175 max hr, I was hitting the correct work rate for this session which was 92%. I managed only one touchline of my mad dash, so I was a bit disappointed but I had run for 21 minutes on and off. Fat Lad had also gone on a 200m sprint home as well and it's a great sign that he can do that as he might need it on the day. Speaking of "on the day" we're hitting the track next Monday to see just how far we can all get in the 12 minutes allowed - should be a fun session. I'm hoping that without that bloody hill (200m at 5-10% gradient) that runs up one side of our training area, that I might just creep over the 2100m mark in 12 minutes. I fully expect the Fat Lad to crack the 2500m mark.

Titfer gave it his all tonight and managed 6/7 sets which is very creditable considering he has been training for around 3 weeks less than me and hasn't made every session so his fitness is bound to be taking longer to progress. Personally I felt reasonably comfortable operating at 92% of my theoretical maximum and when we finished I found I had hit 97% max in the whole session. The session was split into two parts, one of 20 minutes and one of 40 minutes as I had, as previously mentioned, adjusted the settings. In the first session I burned 266 calories, 92% max with a 78% average. In the second session I burned 650 calories, 97% max with an 82% average. Hard session but J-C, Mr H, CE, Fat Lad and Titfer ... as well as me all looked like we'd had fun.

Monday is looming large and I might just consider taking it easy on the giggle juice and the swimming, so I've plenty of energy for the test!